I like it! I bet I'm going against the grain in the Christian metal scene, but then again, I didn't expect Stryper to sound any heavier than To Hell With the Devil did. This album sounds like "To Hell With The Devil Part Two." It's got a couple straight-ahead rockers, like the title track and "The Writing's on the Wall"; plus about five commercial pop metal tunes, similar to "Calling on You." They are: "Always There for You"; "Keep the Fire Burning"; "It's Up 2 U"; "Lonely"; and "Come to the Everlife." It has two ballads again: "I Believe in You" and "The World of You and I." "The World of You and I" is a classy ballad, along the lines of The Scorpions. It has a pretty acoustic guitar throughout and some good, expertly-produced vocals. I think this is the way Stryper ought to do ballads. Forget this grand piano idea. The acoustic guitar makes it seem more like a metal/hard rock band doing a ballad. The last song on the album, which Stryper traditionally rocks out on ("Loving You"; "Surrender/ Battle Hymn"; and "More Than a Man"), is a pseudo-thrasher, called "The Reign." Robert belts his snare to death as Oz chops his way to ecstacy. The lyrics are more upfront evangelistically than they've ever been for Stryper. "The Writing's on the Wall" tells it like it is and has an urgency behind it that says, "If you don't accept God's forgiveness, you'll go to hell," which is the first sense of judgment ever put in Stryper's lyrics. "The truth is right before you/ don't confuse it. No matter what you've been through/ He can change it, 'cause He is our God/ Creator of all. Unless you accept Him/ you continue to fall. The battle is real/ on you He will call. So don't ever wait/ because the writing's on the wall...don't wait until tomorrow/ tomorrow's too late. You've heard the truth/ so what will you do? Who will you choose? He is our God..." This song is the hook that may bring in a huge catch of unsaved Stryper fans. There'll be no getting past this song, thinking that it's about a girl. The listener is pressed to choose, and choose today. I praise God for this, because Stryper has a huge audience. Over a million people will buy this album and they'll all be presented with a choice and also pressed for a decision. There's a big difference in just presenting the gospel and presenting the gospel and pressing for a decision, like "What's it gonna be?" Besides being real hot lyrically, it's my favorite song on the album. It's got a really neat lick in the intro that sounds like Spanish guitar, only with an electric. Overall, I think this is a very good album. For you metalheads that only appreciate gnarly metal, don't get mad at Stryper. Accept them for who they are. This is where they're going and they do it well. That's the big difference: they do what they do very good. They're not just wimping out and doing trash, they're going after that commercial sound that kinda sorta fits under the category of heavy metal. Bon Jovi has shown that this is a winning formula. They were voted "Best heavy metal band of 1987" by Rolling Stone Magazine. The production on In God We Trust is very impressive. The guitar sounds in most of the songs, especially the title track, are really hot.